New virtual reality headsets could push the dangers of porn “to a whole new level”, North East experts have warned.

A team from Newcastle University say the existence of virtual reality (VR) pornography is “just around the corner”, and are investigating how the latest digital technology could blur the line between reality and fantasy.

The researchers say the growing popularity of VR could mean the extreme, degrading or even abusive imagery in pornography becoming all the more “real”.

And they are calling on the digital community to take responsibility for this emerging technology.

Dr Madeline Balaam, co-author of the research, said: “Society is already obsessed with body image and the digital industry is no different, creating the perfect virtual woman from Lara Croft to sex-robots.

Research lead and PhD student Matthew Wood (Image: Newcastle University)

“VR porn has the potential to escalate this.”

Virtual reality is only just starting to emerge, with the launch of several headsets by the likes of Facebook, Playstation and Google at the end of 2016.

Research lead and PhD student Matthew Wood, said: “What VR offers for the first time is the opportunity to move from being simply an observer to being a participant and this changes the experience of pornography massively.

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“We found that for most people the potential of a VR porn experience opened the doors to an apparently ‘perfect’ sexual experience - a scenario which in the real world no-one could live up to.

“For others it meant pushing the boundaries, often with highly explicit and violent imagery.”

Following 45 participants through their first virtual reality porn experience as fictional character ‘Jack’, the Newcastle team asked each volunteer to complete Jack’s story by writing down what they thought would happen next.

Matthew said: “We grouped the stories into two.

“The first group was what we called the ‘perfect’ scenario - some were lavish and fantastical, others were quite close to reality, but all of them were the perfect sexual experience, described by our participants as ‘better than the real thing’.

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“The second was the ‘precarious’ experience, and these stories often went beyond what would be acceptable in real life.”

The team say it is not unforeseeable for scenarios such as the ones described in this research to become a reality, and models based on real people used in VR pornographic settings could become the future form of revenge porn.